forum: Gardening / Growing

seed saving illegal

I just found out that saving seeds from year to year from the plants in your garden is going to be against the law in Canada. It is already illegal in some countries, this seems so wrong. I have seeds that have been in my family for over two centuries.....a spotted lettuce, why can't I continue to grow it? Gardenners, small farmers and organic farmers have been saving seeds and the genetics of these heirloom varieties for years and now free trade between the EU and Canada will make this act illegal. I will be contacting everyone I can think of to prevent this from going through, writing letters to editors and contacting the group in India to find out how they prevented this from happening in their country. We need to preserve these seed stocks and genetic lines to safeguard them for future generations. Up the revolution....save seeds.CheersBina

Re: seed saving illegal

I think seed saving is only illegal if it's from plants with breeders rights. And even then I doubt anyone will bother about it unless you plan to sell them. It's kind of like copyright on DVDs and books.

Re: seed saving illegal

There are a few things on the internet about this...From what I can gather its mainly about farmers who have bought their cannola seed from a particular supplier who ' holds the rights to the plants DNA !It is a particular brand of seed .

Binaatthelake , I think that you would be ok to keep the pretty lettuce going for many years by saving the seeds, from what I have read , its about the particular cannola seed and not things like the lettuce seeds that came into your family generations ago.

Re: seed saving illegal

I know, you read this on the internet. Do you want me to list things that have been written on the internet? How about things that people BELIEVE that have been written on the internet? You are a university student, I hope you've taken some classes in logical thinking and figured out that just because you read it on the internet doesn't make it so.It it did, we would all be laying in bathtubs with our kidneys missing and Osama bin Laden would be living in a guest room at the White House. Stop being moved by fear. It's an age-old tool that seems to work all the time. Sad sad.

Re: seed saving illegal

If you were a commercial farmer, in clear breach of a company's seeds patent, and making money from what you were growing in breach of the patent, you might get the mounties showing up at your door. If you are a private individual, growing your fruit, veg and herbs in your little patch in your backyard for your own use, I should think that firstly, they're highly unlikely to know about you and your veg patch, and secondly, they are unlikely really to care.

However well these films on the net are made, they are offering only one perspective on an issue. People really need to read much more widely and judiciously, to have an accurate understanding and judgement of an issue. You are a university student. Have you learnt how to seek out multiple sources from different perspectives, to read them critically, and to form careful conclusions?

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